46 people hospitalized from food-poisoning at MD office potluck

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:some lady used her BREAST milk in sweets she baked at work didn't tell anyone until AFTER they ate it.

NEVER and I mean NEVER eat crap at work from anyone.

She got fired right? What planet is she on? Wha type of work environment is this? I’m serious I need to know.

lol Planet earth and a professional office in our area! and no she didn't get fired!

I cannot believe she didn’t get fired. That’s almost a kind of assault.

I agree. This is leading people to ingest a person's bodily fluids unknowlingly. Like the foulest prank.

What was her excuse when she was confronted?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When i did a summer abroad in Spain with a family as a teen, I kept getting violently stomach sick until i noticed they didn't refrigerate eggs. I stopped eating all the food they served made with eggs and my stomach was much happier.

In other countries eggs don't need to be refrigerated. They have a natural coating on them that keeps them from going bad. In America we have to refrigerate them because we wash the coating off. https://www.realsimple.com/do-eggs-need-to-be-refrigerated-7565892

[Anonymous]

This is why I never eat potluck food. You'll see me taking a plate but you'll never see me eating from it. Not even eating whatever I brought if I'm not the first person to get some because I used to have the unfortunate pleasure of having my desk near the bathrooms and none of y'all MFs ever wash your hands.

Also, I watch a lot of cooking vids on YouTube and TikTok and I can't believe the state of so many kitchens. Absolutely filthy!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is why I never eat potluck food. You'll see me taking a plate but you'll never see me eating from it. Not even eating whatever I brought if I'm not the first person to get some because I used to have the unfortunate pleasure of having my desk near the bathrooms and none of y'all MFs ever wash your hands.

Also, I watch a lot of cooking vids on YouTube and TikTok and I can't believe the state of so many kitchens. Absolutely filthy!

^ Similar. I might take a few commercially-prepared items, like crackers or chips, and spread it around the plate just to make it look like I'm partaking.

I also know what little kids do with food and there is no way I'm eating anything that little Larla or Larlo has (literally) had their boogery, finger-licking hands in.

[Anonymous]

The Maryland Department of Health sent a statement to 11 News on Tuesday, saying the state's public health lab determined Staphylococcus aureus (Staph) food poisoning as the cause of the gastrointestinal illnesses experienced by 46 workers at the NAFCO Wholesale Fish Distribution facility on Oct. 21.

[Anonymous]

Staph? This story just keeps making my stomach turn.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What in the pancit would have made everyone sick though? The pork? Noodles? Vegetables?

All of the above + bacteria, and lots of it. A Filipino would never even consider refrigerating pancit, maybe just put a fan nearby to shoo flies off of it. Likely prepped it on Saturday or Sunday, left it sitting out on the counter until Monday morning, and then served for lunch at the potluck.

You've got no clue what you're talking about. I'm Filipino and would never in my right mind leave out Pancit and not refrigerate it. Learned this from my mom. No one i know that's Filipino does this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The Maryland Department of Health sent a statement to 11 News on Tuesday, saying the state's public health lab determined Staphylococcus aureus (Staph) food poisoning as the cause of the gastrointestinal illnesses experienced by 46 workers at the NAFCO Wholesale Fish Distribution facility on Oct. 21.

Thank you, I didn’t see that update. So it was the one-two punch of poor handling and danger zone storage temps.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What in the pancit would have made everyone sick though? The pork? Noodles? Vegetables?

All of the above + bacteria, and lots of it. A Filipino would never even consider refrigerating pancit, maybe just put a fan nearby to shoo flies off of it. Likely prepped it on Saturday or Sunday, left it sitting out on the counter until Monday morning, and then served for lunch at the potluck.

You've got no clue what you're talking about. I'm Filipino and would never in my right mind leave out Pancit and not refrigerate it. Learned this from my mom. No one i know that's Filipino does this.

I am sorry you don't understand your heritage as well as highly educated anonymous posters.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:From everything I saw in the Phillipines there is a cultural lack of awareness towards food hygiene. Not a lot of thought is given towards the need for refrigeration. This is why you have to be super careful with these potlucks- not everyone has the same food standards.

I was actually discussing this with a coworker once. We are both of East Asian descent. Our parents will literally leave raw meat sitting in a bowl of water on the counter for several hours. Cooked food gets left out all day and then stuffed in the fridge for leftovers. We think it's unsanitary but marveled that we've never gotten sick from it. I read on another forum of people's Asian relatives doing the same thing, and never getting sick from the food themselves, but sometimes making other relatives sick.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have read this story before but nowhere it was mentioned the dish served or the nationality (or even sex) of the person who brought it.

How do you guys know it was pancit and it was from a Philippine man???

That’s what I’d like to know.

I also don’t get how pan it would make someone sick.

The fact that you do not know how this could happen is how this happens. If it was not cooked to a safe temperature and then promptly refrigerated within 2 hours after, that is all it takes. It’s basic food safety. Noodle and rice dishes are notorious for this and many Asians, at least in my family, leave their leftovers out on the counter or stove overnight. That’s all it takes for the bacteria to spread and it can’t be killed by reheating at that point. My mom is the worst culprit. We try to tell her, but she doesn’t listen. My sister got so sick eating her leftovers that none of is will anymore.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:From everything I saw in the Phillipines there is a cultural lack of awareness towards food hygiene. Not a lot of thought is given towards the need for refrigeration. This is why you have to be super careful with these potlucks- not everyone has the same food standards.

I was actually discussing this with a coworker once. We are both of East Asian descent. Our parents will literally leave raw meat sitting in a bowl of water on the counter for several hours. Cooked food gets left out all day and then stuffed in the fridge for leftovers. We think it's unsanitary but marveled that we've never gotten sick from it. I read on another forum of people's Asian relatives doing the same thing, and never getting sick from the food themselves, but sometimes making other relatives sick.

Their digestive systems are probably used to it. The coworkers obviously weren't.

[Anonymous]

The Maryland Department of Health announced that testing found Staphylococcus aureus in the pancit.
S. aureus is found on skin and can contaminate food through unwashed hands and the food being held at warm temperature conducive to bacterial growth.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So I thought this would be the stuffed ham with oysters a Maryland thing. It has a history of getting people sick,

There was a stuffed ham mass poisoning at a church supper in southern MD in the 90s, but I don't think oysters were involved.